As the result of a meeting Thursday morning between conference officials and the coaches he has changed his mind.

Conference officials decided to alter the format of the tournament as rain continued to hamper the start of play. The tournament will be a hybrid between double elimination and single elimnation. Thursday afternoon, weather permitting, No. 4-seeded Belmont will play No. 5-seed Mercer at 2 p.m. No. 3 -seed ed Stetson, the tournament host, will play No. 6-seeded ETSU at 5:30.

The No.2-seeded Bisons, who were originally scheduled to play Mercer in the opening round, have drawn a bye and will not play until Friday. They will play the winner of the game between Stetson and ETSU. Game time will be at noon.

Top-seeded Jacksonville will play the winner of the game between Belmont and Mercer. That game will be played Friday at 8:30 a.m.

The losers of games one and two will be eliminated. The final four teams in the tournament would then play a double-elimination format. However, that plan is subject to change as well.

Four games are on the schedule for Friday. If the fourth game is not completed by the end of the day Friday the tournament will shift to a single-elimination format.